Re: quake2 and german youth protection law
On Jun 18, 2005, at 17:25, Michael Below wrote:
non-German
It is highly likely that you'll find similar laws all over the EU if
you start looking.
In Finland, for example, distribution of interactive image programs (or
is photoplay the correct legal term?) ie. games requires informing the
State movie inspection bureau. Inspection before distribution is not
mandatory, but the bureau may take an interactive image program in
inspection if there is a reason to believe that it contains material
harmful to children. The age limit (inspected or unchallenged voluntary
limit) must be presented on packaging.
I didn't find any rating for Quake II specifically, but the voluntary
(ie. suggested by the distributors and not challenged by the bureau)
age limit for other games from the Quake series that are in the
database is 15. (Unlike in Germany, typical American entertainment
violence in games and movies gets the 15 limit in Finland--not 18.)
If one is to assume the strictest outcome (in debian-legal style) while
still assuming that the content is not totally banned, one has to
assume that interactive image programs are banned from persons under 18
unless inspected and shown otherwise.
IANAL, INADD, TINLA, but I doubt a game engine without data files
constitutes an interactive image program.
--
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen@iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/
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